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Dissertations in physics: An indexed bibliography of all doctoral theses accepted by American universities, 1861–1959
Book reviews from its famous sunshine to the smog which has earned a certain notoriety in reoent years for San Francisco. The temperature inversion, in which the usual decrease of temperature with height above the earth’s surface is replaced by an increase, occurs on many days of summer (70 per cent or more) over a wide area of the North East Pacific including the Western seaboard of the United States. All available ~orrn~tio~ on this temperature inversion has been assembled in this booklet, including the results obtained from special cruises by craft operated by the University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A digest of the data is also given and the average characteristics of the structure of the atmosphere in the first few thousand metres over the Eastern Pacific are demonstrated in many charts and diagrams with a discussion of the vertical motions, turbulent diffusion, surface heating and radiation exchanges leading to the observed distributions. Some of the general results have been known for many years, for example that the height of the inversion, usually a few hundrad metres over the coast, rises to seawards. As in many meteorological investigations the data are comparatively few and have had to be combined to give a general picture of a phenomenon which is changing from day to day; many of the ~terest~g features therefore appear somewhat blurred. Nevertheless this monograph seems likely to be the standard descriptive reference on the subject for many years. J. K. BANNON
Sp@e ~~p~~~:
Edited by W. LIUER.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961. 272 pp., $10.
IX this volume there is assembled a series of articles dealing with astronomical and astrophysical problems investigated from above the atmosphere. In the fhst half of the book the experimental methods, involving the aid of rockets and satellites, are described in detail; while the second half is devoted to theoretical discussions of such topics as the solar corona, interplanetary gas, solar winds and lunar conditions. Most of the contributions were presented at a symposium on space astrophysics, organized in 1959-60 by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Michigan. They have been written by experts for experts, and the claim made on the book cover that “many can be understood by the intelligent layman” can scarcely be admitted. Nevertheless the volume is the fTi.rst planned collection of articles on a very young subject, the study of space with ~st~ents that are situated there. E. V. APPLETON
D~~~o~ in Phsics: An indexed bib~~~ap~ of alI doctoral theses accepted by American ~Ye~i~~, 1961-19$9. Compiled by M. L. NARCKWORTE. Stanford University Press, 1961. xii + 803 pp., $17.60.
ACCORDINGto the Introduction to this imposing volume, 8418 doctorates in physics have been awarded by American universities since Yale conferred the degree of Ph.D. on ARTHVR WILLIAMS WRIO~~ in 1861 for a thesis entitled “Having given the velocity and direction of motion of a meteor on entering the atmosphere of the earth, to determine its orbit about the sun, taking into account the attractions of both these bodies”. Ninety-seven institutions have been involved in this degree-giving, from the University of California with 535 doctors, to Colorado State, Smith College, Wayne State and Western Reserve with one each. More than 5000 of these higher degrees have been awarded in the decade 1950-1959. This up-to-date bibliography of a century’s theses was compiled, as it would appear from the Foreword, partly from the conviction that it was a timely contribution to the tools of researoh, partly-even primarily-as an experiment in information processing by machine. Part I is an
226
Book reviews alphabetical list by authors’ nsmes; Part II (pp. 397-791) a “permutation subject index” produced on the 704 computer of the Inte~ational BusinessMaohines Co~or&tion of San Jose, California,who hold the copyright of the work as a whole. The code design&ion of this type of indexing is KWIK (key word in context). The promoters say of it “It provides an index that is both consistent and exhaustive for the material on which it is based: the words in the titles themselves. The program cannot index a document beyond the depth of the words supplied . . .” Out,of the machine, in this particularcase, have come more tha 40,000 index entries, some 600, for example, with “electron” or “electronic” as key-word-together with an unavoidableresidue of grotesquessuch as “DRIVEN-A study of the time-dependentwind-drivenocean circulation. 7500”. The number, of course, provides the referenceto the ~lph~betic&llist by authors’ names. ~~ithout the impersonalmachine, indexing of these theseswould have been a truly fo~idable task. Its use has undoubtedly diminished the incidence of human error in the undertaking, but the sly jest is absent-as by def&it.ion: only the occasionalgrotesque remains. That is not to deny the value of the final product to the researcher. He will find it all here--except what is ““beyondthe depth of the words supplied”. For that he must rely on his own nose. N. FEATHER
227
Sp@e ~~p~~~:
Edited by W. LIUER.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961. 272 pp., $10.
IX this volume there is assembled a series of articles dealing with astronomical and astrophysical problems investigated from above the atmosphere. In the fhst half of the book the experimental methods, involving the aid of rockets and satellites, are described in detail; while the second half is devoted to theoretical discussions of such topics as the solar corona, interplanetary gas, solar winds and lunar conditions. Most of the contributions were presented at a symposium on space astrophysics, organized in 1959-60 by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Michigan. They have been written by experts for experts, and the claim made on the book cover that “many can be understood by the intelligent layman” can scarcely be admitted. Nevertheless the volume is the fTi.rst planned collection of articles on a very young subject, the study of space with ~st~ents that are situated there. E. V. APPLETON
D~~~o~ in Phsics: An indexed bib~~~ap~ of alI doctoral theses accepted by American ~Ye~i~~, 1961-19$9. Compiled by M. L. NARCKWORTE. Stanford University Press, 1961. xii + 803 pp., $17.60.
ACCORDINGto the Introduction to this imposing volume, 8418 doctorates in physics have been awarded by American universities since Yale conferred the degree of Ph.D. on ARTHVR WILLIAMS WRIO~~ in 1861 for a thesis entitled “Having given the velocity and direction of motion of a meteor on entering the atmosphere of the earth, to determine its orbit about the sun, taking into account the attractions of both these bodies”. Ninety-seven institutions have been involved in this degree-giving, from the University of California with 535 doctors, to Colorado State, Smith College, Wayne State and Western Reserve with one each. More than 5000 of these higher degrees have been awarded in the decade 1950-1959. This up-to-date bibliography of a century’s theses was compiled, as it would appear from the Foreword, partly from the conviction that it was a timely contribution to the tools of researoh, partly-even primarily-as an experiment in information processing by machine. Part I is an
226
Book reviews alphabetical list by authors’ nsmes; Part II (pp. 397-791) a “permutation subject index” produced on the 704 computer of the Inte~ational BusinessMaohines Co~or&tion of San Jose, California,who hold the copyright of the work as a whole. The code design&ion of this type of indexing is KWIK (key word in context). The promoters say of it “It provides an index that is both consistent and exhaustive for the material on which it is based: the words in the titles themselves. The program cannot index a document beyond the depth of the words supplied . . .” Out,of the machine, in this particularcase, have come more tha 40,000 index entries, some 600, for example, with “electron” or “electronic” as key-word-together with an unavoidableresidue of grotesquessuch as “DRIVEN-A study of the time-dependentwind-drivenocean circulation. 7500”. The number, of course, provides the referenceto the ~lph~betic&llist by authors’ names. ~~ithout the impersonalmachine, indexing of these theseswould have been a truly fo~idable task. Its use has undoubtedly diminished the incidence of human error in the undertaking, but the sly jest is absent-as by def&it.ion: only the occasionalgrotesque remains. That is not to deny the value of the final product to the researcher. He will find it all here--except what is ““beyondthe depth of the words supplied”. For that he must rely on his own nose. N. FEATHER
227